Doctor says GOP is 'criminalizing health care' with state bans on transgender treatments for kids
A doctor of a leading medical group told CBS News state laws banning transgender treatments for children were 'criminalizing' health care.
The new head of the American Medical Association decried laws banning minors from transgender treatments as both unethical and unscientific.
Dr. Jesse Ehrenfeld told CBS News he believed health care was under attack, in a Thursday night report on "Challenges Facing America's Doctors." He accused state bans on abortion and transgender treatments for children as "criminalizing health care."
CBS's report comes on the heels of PBS also highlighting a physician pushing transgender treatments for 8-10 year old kids.
Ehrenfeld leads the largest group of physicians and medical students in the country. Describing himself as an advocate of "science-based medicine," Ehrenfeld complained that "backseat drivers" were "telling us what to do" on reproductive care and "gender-affirming care" for transgender patients.
American Medical Association President Jesse Ehrenfeld decried the pushback against transgender treatments for minors in a CBS Evening News interview Thursday night. (CBS News/Screenshot)
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He also blamed lawmakers for "discarding science and telling physicians how to practice medicine" by "putting barriers [up] to care."
Texas and Indiana recently joined the over a dozen states across the country that have banned gender surgeries and hormone therapies for minors.
Medical groups and advocates for the trans community have criticized the legislation, saying the treatment is vital to the mental health for trans youth.
The AMA president feared he could be jailed for providing "ethical and scientific" medical care to patients because of these bans.
Tree Crane, 17, poses for a photograph following a rally where hundreds gathered in support of transgender youth at the Utah State Capitol Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2023, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
"In at least six states now if I practice evidence-based care, I can go to jail. It’s frightening. When a patient shows up in my office, if I do the right thing from a scientific, from an ethical perspective, to know that that care is no longer legal, criminalized, and could wind me in prison," he told CBS.
CBS News did not offer any opposing voices giving counterpoints to the doctor's claim in the segment.
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Ehrenfeld said these laws were "deeply damaging" to health care, giving the example of OB-GYNs leaving states where they could not offer abortions to women.
This is at least the second report this week by a media organization profiling a doctor who is pushing transgender treatments for minors.
PBS News profiled Brown University professor of pediatrics and clinician educator Dr. Michelle Forcier who dismissed the notion that kids are too young to understand their own gender issues. She compared a child understanding they are transgender to feeling like they have an earache, in a Monday evening report.
"If I had a 10-year-old or an 8-year-old who told me their ear hurt, I wouldn't look at them and say, 'You're only 8 or 10, you don't know if your ear hurts,' right?" Forcier said. "It's important that we listen to kids. It doesn't mean that a kid says, ‘I'm trans,’ and two hours later they get hormones. It means that we respect kids as individuals."
Fox News' Louis Casiano and Lindsay Kornick contributed to this report.